This invention relates generally to the field of telephony, and more particularly to an improved test shoe adapted to be placed in engagement with the exposed ends of subscriber pair cables appearing on a telephone connector or protector block.
As is known in the art, to afford protection to office switching and other equipment, it is common practice to bring individual subscriber pair cables into the office for appearance on a main frame having a plurality of connector and protector blocks. The latter are engaged by so-called protector modules which complete the tip and ring circuits to the switching equipment, the modules including a variety of protective devices which ground excessive currents caused by the occurrence of lightning strikes, fallen cables and the like. As the installation of new subscriber circuits is made, it is convenient to serially test a large number of such circuits using standard procedures, by interfacing the test equipment at the point where the protector modules are subsequently connected, or at adjacent test fields. With the development of protector modules having test points on an exposed surface thereof, it is desirable that the same test shoe engage either such points or the contacts appearing on the connector block.
It is also known in the art to provide large test shoes for this purpose capable of simultaneously engaging up to one hundred subscriber pairs, the engagement of each pair requiring interconnection for tip and ring circuits. Engagement is made by the contact of spring urged projections with corresponding oversized sockets, and once engaged, the shoe is maintained in position by the provision of an interference fit between the handle portion of the module and corresponding recesses in the shoe. Because of the large number of such interference fits, one with each module handle, considerable frictional force is developed when an attempt is made to remove the shoe after the completion of test procedures, and difficulty in overcoming the frictional force is often encountered. The above described structure is usually bulky, not inexpensive to manufacture, and not always convenient to use, particularly in those locations offering only limited access to the face of the protector block.